hk wrote:

Police killers identified as activists on mission
to spread anti-government message

By Zack McMillin, Marc Perrusquia
Memphis Commercial Appeal





In the final moments of their lives, West Memphis Police Department
veterans Brandon Paudert and Bill Evans encountered Thursday an old
white Plymouth Voyager minivan carrying 16-year-old Joe Kane and his
45-year-old father, Jerry R. Kane -- a man who unbeknownst to them
harbored extreme anti-government views. He also had a record of previous
trouble with police and a philosophy, which he credited to the Bible, of
applying overwhelming violence to "conquer" foes.

Increasingly surreal revelations Friday about the Kanes gradually led to
a late-evening confirmation by Arkansas State Police that Jerry Kane of
Chester, Ohio, and Joe, of unknown residence, were indeed the dead
suspects they believe killed Evans and Paudert -- the son of the town's
chief of police.

The Kanes later wounded Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby and Deputy
Chief W.A. Wren in the conclusive shootout at Walmart in which father
and son were killed.

Jerry Kane traveled the country with his son giving seminars on what he
called "mortgage fraud" and offering advice on foreclosure strategies. A
website promoting those seminars provided a trove of information --
audio files and YouTube videos and links to various documents --
detailing his world views.

One particularly chilling YouTube clip involves Kane fielding a question
about a "rogue" Internal Revenue Service agent: "Violence doesn't solve
anything, OK. It's not violence that we're after. The Bible even tells
us that if you're going to go and make war against somebody, you have to
kill their sheep and their goats and their chickens and their babies and
their wives. OK?"

In the YouTube video he said, "You have to kill them all. So what we're
after here is not fighting, it's conquering. I don't want to have to
kill anybody, but if they keep messing with me, that's what it's going
to have to come out. That's what it's going to come down to, is I'm
going to have to kill. And if I have to kill one, then I'm not going to
be able to stop, I just know it."

In that video, he and Joe joke about using a bat to "take care of" a
problem with an IRS agent.

In an Internet broadcast dated May 6, Jerry Kane talks about New Mexico
police arresting him in April at a "Nazi checkpoint where they were
demanding papers or jail."

A woman identifying herself as Donna Lee, who lives in Clearwater, Fla.,
told The Commercial Appeal she was the common-law wife of Jerry Kane,
and that, looking at news footage, she could identify the minivan, a
black dog she called Olie escaping the van after the shootout and,
finally, the lifeless body of her stepson, Joe, in front of the minivan.

At least one neighbor in Clearwater confirmed the presence of Joe and
Jerry there over the past few months, although a background check showed
Jerry had lived in central Ohio for much of his life -- in Springfield
much of the past two decades.

Other relatives confirmed similar details to The Commercial Appeal,
including that another dog, named Missy Kate, was also traveling in the
van. The West Memphis Animal Shelter confirmed that another dog, which
had been killed, had indeed been found.

Another friend said the Kanes also traveled with a box of ashes of
Jerry's late wife, who was Joe's mother. Lee also said Jerry Kane owned
an AK-47 and carried it with him on trips because he liked taking it to
shooting ranges.

But Lee insisted that Jerry and Joe Kane were doing good work, helping
people with financial troubles keep their homes. A memorial website
devoted to the Kanes sprang up early Friday expressing similar
sentiments and featuring messages from many people clearly holding great
affection -- and even admiration -- for father and son.

Ohio police records describe Kane as a burly man, 6-foot-2 and 230
pounds, who for a time wore a black beard. Since 1983, Kane was arrested
or cited six times in Clark County, Ohio, on charges ranging from
passing bad checks to criminal trespass, drunken driving and driving
with expired tags.

Kane was charged with felonious assault in 2004 after allegedly shooting
a 13-year-old boy in Springfield with a "handgun-style BB gun.''

Material on the website promoting Kane's foreclosure-advising business
displays classic rhetoric experts say is associated with anti-government
groups. Topics discussed on the site include microchips inserted into
people's bodies, plots involving the H1N1 vaccine and the contention
that U.S. dollars don't constitute real money.

"It's a classic Patriot or Sovereign Citizen website,'' said Mark Potok,
director of the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center.

In that YouTube clip about the "rogue" IRS agent, in which Jerry
described his view of the proper use of violence, his son is shown
laughing and offering to deal with the agent himself: "If you pay for
the bat, I'll take care of the problem." Later, the son describes his
view on violence: "They drew first blood. You are self-defending."

Jerry Kane asks of the audience: "Can anybody tell that my son has never
been to school? ... He slipped though the cracks."

Potok said a check of the Southern Poverty center's databases found no
mention of Kane, but that he clearly was at least influenced by extreme
right-wing organizations. "Without question, Jerry Kane was mouthing
some of the core ideas of anti-government, Patriot movement," Potok said.

The white van in Thursday's shootout was registered to a New Vienna,
Ohio, organization called House of God's Prayer. Potok said a former FBI
informant says the building where the church was housed also once served
as the headquarters for the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group.
"That was an incredibly violent bunch of people up there,'' Potok said.

Lee rejected any suggestion that Jerry and Joe held racist views. She
said Jerry Kane tried "to help everyone, it did not matter what their
color."
Once again the Southern Poverty Law Center and other extremists want to
label anyone that is faithful to the Constiution and Republic as the
Extremists.
No idea who the nut jobs were that murdered the Law Enforcement Officers.
My heart goes out to the Officers' Families and the Law Enforcement
Community.